Krystina Sulatycki likens the job fair she attended just before graduating from Ryerson University’s MBA program two years ago, to a rat race as she found herself surrounded by about 100 other applicants.

They were all applying for one position.

“That’s kind of what it was like then,” Ms. Sulatycki, now 28, recalls. “[The job market] was definitely challenging, and especially since I was at a career pivot point, I didn’t have a lot of previous experience and that’s what employers were looking for.”

Ms. Sulatycki’s experience reflects much of the hopelessness many Canadian youth face in today’s labour market. Job prospects for young Canadians continue to diminish, with February’s unemployment rate for people between the ages of 15 to 24 at 13.6% — nearly double the national average of 7%.

What’s more, a recent TD Economics report released earlier this year said that the loss of tens of thousands of youth jobs during the recession will cost Canadians $23.1-billion in lost wages for the next 18 years.

Yet some twentysomethings are much more optimistic about the future than what the headlines portray — and they are demonstrating that by veering into the entrepreneurial fast lane.

Toronto-based Ms. Sulatycki for one, said that not having a job worked in her favour. Being unemployed allowed her more time and freedom to focus on starting up Stylehawk, a social shopping app, soon after graduation.

“Had I found work, I probably would have started this on the side and it might have grown slower, or taken a different route,” Ms. Sulatycki said.

Stylehawk, which launched on the Canadian App Store last December, now features 19 retailers including The Bay, Sephora and Roots. The app is designed to act like a mall directory, where users can enter stores, browse items, and identify whether they ‘want’, ‘have’, ‘share’, or ‘buy’ it.

For Ms. Sulatycki, who also holds an undergraduate materials engineering degree from University of Alberta, Stylehawk and entrepreneurship has allowed her to pursue her dream early in her career.

“Stylehawk evolved from my desire to be able to walk into a store, and then hear, ‘Hi Krystina, your changeroom is ready for you. We took the liberty of picking up a few things,’ and then I’ll just go and try them on,” Ms. Sulatycki said.

“That’s what I’d like shopping to be like. I’m trying to give retailers an opportunity to personalize a customer’s shopping experience.”

That kind of entrepreneurial spirit is becoming more popular among young Canadians, according to Jane Wu, co-founder and chief happiness officer of Toronto-based Penyo Pal, which makes interactive app games to teach children Mandarin, English or French.

The 22-year-old, for example, said her decision to become an entrepreneur had little to do with today’s job market difficulties, and everything to do with the “popularizing concept of being at the prime of your life, when you’re super, super able to tolerate risk.”

In other words: No mortgage, no children and the ability to be mobile.

Ms. Wu was selected for the Next 36 program, a “startup boot camp” for promising Canadian undergraduates, where, she helped create Penyo Pal with $50,000 seed money and a team of three other students in the program.

“The entrepreneurial community in Toronto and Canada has been improving. Just five years ago, it wasn’t common for high school or university students to want to jump into a startup,” Ms. Wu said.

“Now, I find I’m having this conversation multiple times with other friends — even those who have jobs in big corporations.”

Likewise, 22-year-old Phil Jacobson, turned down a few job offers in brand management at big-name corporations when he graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University’s undergraduate business administration program last year. He opted to focus his full-time attention on PumpUp, a personalized workout app he co-founded with University of Waterloo student Garrett Gottlieb in 2011.

“The way things worked out for me, it was just a matter of finding a right fit,” Mr. Jacobson said. “But I could definitely see if I wasn’t able to get a job, I’d think about doing something on my own or pursue working for a smaller startup.”

At the same time, for many twentysomething entrepreneurs, their youth can also be a hindrance. With little or no professional experience behind them, they have to hustle to prove themselves.

“We lack a track record. Beyond Penyo Pal, no one knows what we can do,” Ms. Wu said, adding how it’s especially difficult when trying to raise funding.

Despite the challenges, Ms. Sulatycki said it would be hard to swap her entrepreneurial passion to work for someone else.

“Maybe in the right environment, if it involved what I’m passionate about — strategic environment, I would be open to it,” she said. “But I’m also very happy working for myself now.”

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